It seems like Google Maps is getting more new features every day. And now, according to The Daily Dot, the companies that provide satellite images to Google just got approval to take higher-resolution photos. Meaning that your prize rose garden will be crisply broadcast to anyone who happens upon your neighborhoods Street View.

But there are some things that most would prefer not to air to the entire Internet. Those being your cars license plate, the facade of your house, your visitors, and  of course  your face. The good news: There are tools in place to allow you to blur these things out. The bad news: It seems that anyone can use them on anyone else.

Lets review:

1. Go to Google Maps and enter your home address.

2. Your address will appear on the map. Underneath the search bar, click the Street View box. Or you can grab the little Pegman on the bottom-right corner of the screen and place him wherever youd like.

3. Once youve adjusted your view so you can see the front of your home, click Report a problem at the very bottom right of the page.

4. Youll be brought to a page that displays your address and the image of your home. Adjust the red box to make sure its focused on the thing you want blurred out. It can be your face, your license plate, your home, or anything else (you, naked, doing backflips in your front yard). Indicate what youd like to eliminate by filling out the form under Request blurring. You can also report poor image quality

All that getting out and covering it up each time someone gets too close behind you must really eat up transit time.

I've played around with the idea of an LCD film across the license plate. Half would be dark at any time. The switch between the sides would be so fast that it would just appear somewhat shaded when looking at it, but any camera fast enough to take a picture of a moving car would only get half the plate.

8
posted on 06/28/2014 9:54:05 AM PDT
by KarlInOhio
(The IRS: either criminally irresponsible in backup procedures or criminally responsible of coverup.)

“I’ve played around with the idea of an LCD film across the license plate. Half would be dark at any time. The switch between the sides would be so fast that it would just appear somewhat shaded when looking at it, but any camera fast enough to take a picture of a moving car would only get half the plate.”

The control freaks will be coming for webcams soon. Also cameras, dashcams and phonecams. Already after r/c planes and copters.

Do you know there are low cost cameras that can be put in r/c planes and they transmit real time images to a helmet display? It moves as you move your head and displays the video stream along with gps coordinates. It is as if you were in the plane.

Our neighborhood was recently found by google maps. Since then, we’ve had several incidences of thefts, attempted break ins and prowlers. We’ve never had that problem before. Coincidence or a useful burglar tool.

Interesting. SPIKE had a short series about dropping off the grid a couple years ago. They recommended an array of LEDs spaced around the bill of a BB cap. It completely washed out the face from security camera footage; parking lot cameras up on a light pole, ATMs, and so on. Can’t recall the frequency they used, however.

The license plate lenses aren’t prefect. Had one on and still got a camera ticket.

But I’ll be darned if I looked at it from angles and it did blur out at from angles. Don’t know how the camera got it though. The camera was high up in the toll booth. So maybe up high the lens doesn’t block? From the sides it did though.

44
posted on 06/28/2014 10:33:32 PM PDT
by bicyclerepair
(The zombies here elected alcee hastings. TERM LIMITS ... TERM LIMITS)

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